Features suggestion after 500h of gameplay

[Burialfaith]

 

First, good job to the team for creating such a nice game!

 

Here's the features I think should help improve the game:

 

• Add much larger trees (like in British Columbia - Canada)
• Have forests being more dense and with more various tree types
• Add More recipes
• Auto-display bird nest on map
• Auto-travel feature to POI
• Ability to skip time (like in Oblivion)
• UFO expansion/DLC with new virus
• Better zombie AI: while they are not aggroed, while they are fighting and while they hit wall trying to reach you
• A bigger zombie's density
• More flying vehicles
• Ability to update map when new alpha version gets released
• Ability to merge two maps (with friends' map) or more than 2 maps merged
• Cross-console for online gameplay
• Hit the Nintendo market
• Allow full usage of 12 Gb RAM GPU (to prevent 3D objects from popping on the screen)
• Go VR
• Create your own controller with motion sensor (kinda like Wii remote controller)
• Add option to turn off certain in-game noise (like planes)
• Add option to edit colors of 3D objects on the world map via an object editor while not in game
• Add a story ******
• Add new animals such as: marmot, chipmunks, snakes, tarantula, birds and beaver (thus river's dam in some biomes)
• Add sea/water wildlife
• Add various harvest animations
• Add more vehicles
• Add water-based vehicles (kayak, boat)
• Add bleeding animation both for zombies and the character
• Dead "Spider Zombie" which has a blown head, shouldn't scream at the same pitch or be able to scream at all
• Faster map editor (to auto-generate map); 10 minutes is honestly too long to peek a look at a new map
• Add a stocking area for wood next to firecamp
• Add tornados that can wipe 3D objects
• Add thunderstrike leading to burning forest (thus more dense forest^^) which also lead to blueberries groing in the new biome
• Add ability to create rising-bridge (like a castle gate above a river)
• Shooting while in a street should awaken all zombies in nearby houses
• Add more mushroom types
• Allow users to create dam to produce hydroelectricity
• Add a food harvest tool
• Animals and zombies should pop at different locations in the same POI
• Add snowstorms that can also leaves snow traces on the ground and with snow that can be harvested
• Add gravity to water (to prevent having holes in lakes or river)
• Add scarier animations for awakening zombies
• Add the option to block ressources gathering from certain blocks or objects (such as door)
• Add metro under cities
• Add an infection rate/probability (%) when harvesting infected animals or handling uncooked food
• Allow ability to port characters (with their stats) to new maps
• The game really needs its own soundtrack. The current music is great 9/10, but... it's pretty much based on the same musical scale as Oblivion and the same soundtrack style as Hearthstone's tavern. Creating a soundtrack which is close to Diablo 1 Tristram theme (more like a creepy style) would be awesome: 
• Player shouldn't be able to drop off a bike going at full speed; there is cinetic energy involved in that process
• It should be easier to identify a real dead corpse from a sleeping zombie
• Add animations for broken body parts on zombies, not just removing body parts
• Its not only the noises that a player makes that should awaken zombies, but zombies creating sounds should also awaken their relatives
• Add beach and swamp biomes
• Arrows shouldn't depop within minute (or at all)

 

Again, awesome game!!!

Cheers!

 

B

Edited April 29, 2023 by Burialfaith
Added URL for the song that I was talking about (see edit history)

[Crypted]

1 hour ago, Burialfaith said:

 

First, good job to the team for creating such a nice game!

 

Here's the features I think should help improve the game:

 

• Add much larger trees (like in British Columbia - Canada) I agree, but from a developer's standpoint it could be harder than you think 
• Have forests being more dense and with more various tree types In some areas yeah sure
• Add More recipes Definitely a yes 
• Auto-display bird nest on map To me this isn't needed
• Auto-travel feature to POI This is technically already a thing for POI's but it's not fast travel  
• Ability to skip time (like in Oblivion) To me this isn't needed
• A bigger zombie's density I'm assuming that you mean a big zombie, if so then I would like this to
• Cross-console for online gameplay This is going to happen at some point when the new console version gets released
• Add option to turn off certain in-game noise (like planes) I think more options in general would be good
• Add a story ******  This is on the roadmap to Gold and Beyond
• Add new animals such as: marmot, chipmunks, snakes, tarantula, birds and beaver (thus river's dam in some biomes) I agree but the snakes are in the game already
• Add sea/water wildlife I would love fish
• Add water-based vehicles (kayak, boat) I agree with you
• Dead "Spider Zombie" which has a blown head, shouldn't scream at the same pitch or be able to scream at all The game is still in development so I'm sure this will get fixed
• Add thunderstrike leading to burning forest (thus more dense forest^^) which also lead to blueberries groing in the new biome All I know is weather is on the Roadmap list
• Add ability to create rising-bridge (like a castle gate above a river) TFP added a draw bridge
• Add more mushroom types I agree with you
• Add a food harvest tool There is the knife to harvest meat from animals
• Add snowstorms that can also leave snow traces on the ground and with snow that can be harvested I agree with you
• The game really needs its own soundtrack. The current music is great 9/10, I agree with you on it's own soundtrack with multiple 7DTD music to listen to
• It should be easier to identify a real dead corpse from a sleeping zombie I don't think so because that's what makes it fun to me, but there are some corpses that you can tell the difference between
• Add animations for broken body parts on zombies, not just removing body parts I also agree but this game is still getting worked on so maybe
• Add beach and swamp biomes I agree with you on the beach but not the swamp 
• Arrows shouldn't depop within minute (or at all) You mean disappear right, if so than yeah I agree with you 

 

Again, awesome game!!!

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Crypted (see edit history)

[zztong]

21 hours ago, Burialfaith said:

chipmunks

 

I never would have guessed I'd see that in a suggestion.

[Burialfaith]

On 4/23/2023 at 8:51 PM, Crypted said:

A bigger zombie's density I'm assuming that you mean a big zombie, if so then I would like this to

More zombies by square meters.

 

On 4/23/2023 at 8:51 PM, Crypted said:

Add new animals such as: marmot, chipmunks, snakes, tarantula, birds and beaver (thus river's dam in some biomes) I agree but the snakes are in the game already

More various types of snakes.

7 hours ago, zztong said:

On 4/23/2023 at 7:38 PM, Burialfaith said:

chipmunks

 

I never would have guessed I'd see that in a suggestion.

Would be harder to catch than wild chickens and it would maybe renders the hunt more interactive, by listening to sounds to find animals and not just using the visuals to identify them.

[Riamus]

Although Crypted gave good responses to these, here are my own as well...

On 4/23/2023 at 7:38 PM, Burialfaith said:

 

First, good job to the team for creating such a nice game!

 

Here's the features I think should help improve the game:

 

• Add much larger trees (like in British Columbia - Canada) More variety in trees or nicer looking trees would be nice - the snow biome trees are great.  Keep in mind this is set in Arizona, so they'll likely not add trees that don't fit at least generally in that part of the world.
• Have forests being more dense and with more various tree types Forest density has a notable impact on fps and it also makes driving cross country more difficult, so I doubt they'll increase it much if at all.
• Add More recipes More recipes could be good but only if they are worthwhile.  More isn't always better.  If they are essentially the same as what we already have, but different ingredients and names, then they really aren't worth adding.  As it is, how often do you make baked potatoes or corn on the cob?  Maybe a little right in the beginning if you aren't going to save potatoes or corn for better recipes but that's it.  We don't need more that are never used.
• Auto-display bird nest on map Not needed.  We don't need to make the game easy to find everything.  Walk or drive around and you'll find bird nests without much difficulty as it is.
• Auto-travel feature to POI Personally, I don't really want auto-travel, though I would not mind being able to set yourself to follow another person automatically or just to have "auto-run" so you can take your finger off Shift+W while you are running or driving.
• Ability to skip time (like in Oblivion) This won't happen.  The game is tied to time.  Skipping it would not work for this game for a wide variety of reasons.
• UFO expansion/DLC with new virus Could be possible.  I'd be fine with it, though it would would need to offer something worthwhile to get me to buy it.
• Better zombie AI: while they are not aggroed, while they are fighting and while they hit wall trying to reach you The zombies are designed to have some that will hit walls (go into destruction mode) rather than come to you and this is increased if they can't find a path to you.  Apparently it wasn't this way before and it was changed to add behavior that was not as easily controlled by the player.  They have made adjustments to how the zombies function and have gone from where they always know exactly how to reach you, which made it easy to manipulate them, to some knowing how to reach you and some only having a general idea and some not having a clue (paraphrasing here) in order to reduce the ability to manipulate them.  Overall, I think they are okay but if they can make them better, it's definitely a good thing.
• A bigger zombie's density This has a notable effect on fps and so is not too likely to increase for vanilla unless they decide to add a setting for it like they have for blood moon.  POI can already set how many zombies are in them, so your suggestion would be specifically for zombies that are not part of POIs. That said, as they start optimizing the game, they may find they can increase this density somewhat.
• More flying vehicles I believe they have said they do not plan to add more player vehicles other than perhaps a raft.  The only other flying vehicle they really could add would be a real helicopter.  If they added that, it would definitely be nice to have but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
• Ability to update map when new alpha version gets released This will likely never happen because changes can be very significant.  Just look at A21.  Some POI are being completely reworked and some may even have their sizes changed similar to traders being resized.  Trying to update maps to reflect all these changes would be monumental.  They have enough work just updating the default maps without trying to find an automatic way to update random maps that could even have custom POI on them.
• Ability to merge two maps (with friends' map) or more than 2 maps merged This would be nice, but it does create problems that would have to be worked out.  For one, the map size can become an issue for computer resources.  You might be able to have two maps that you can cross between, but that would end up most likely requiring a loading screen between maps, which I think most people would not want and would then never use that feature.
• Cross-console for online gameplay Planned for once the new console version is released.
• Hit the Nintendo market Not sure this is necessary.
• Allow full usage of 12 Gb RAM GPU (to prevent 3D objects from popping on the screen) You will probably see improvements when they start optimizing the game but some of it is likely limited by Unity.
• Go VR They have discussed this.
• Create your own controller with motion sensor (kinda like Wii remote controller) I can't imagine this being a good way to control the game except as part of VR.
• Add option to turn off certain in-game noise (like planes) More settings would be great.  For example, I can't hear someone talking to me if I'm using an auger on iron and I can't just turn down that sound.
• Add option to edit colors of 3D objects on the world map via an object editor while not in game Not sure what you mean.  If you want to change the blocks, you can create your own blocks and make them look how you want and then add them to your custom POI.  Modders do this already.
• Add a story ****** Already planned, though my view on it is that players will find it interesting once or maybe twice and then ignore it.  This isn't a game you play once and then put down for months or years before playing again.  You play this over and over and no matter how good a story is, it won't be new after the first time you see it.
• Add new animals such as: marmot, chipmunks, snakes, tarantula, birds and beaver (thus river's dam in some biomes) Not really needed but if they can do so without impacting how the game runs, I'm fine with more animals.  But they should not be able to be hunted unless they also reduce the number of other animals enough to balance what you can find.  Meat is already far too easy to obtain.
• Add sea/water wildlife They mentioned sharks.
• Add various harvest animations More animations would be greatly appreciated but only as long as they do not get annoying.  Roland brought up a good point on this (I think it was Roland) in that if you threw a glass jar over your shoulder every time you drank something and heard it break, by the umpteenth time you did this, you would be wanting a way to mod it out because it would get so annoying.  It would have to be a simple animating similar to wrenching something apart.
• Add more vehicles They aren't interesting in adding more vehicles other than perhaps a raft.  They aren't really needed anyhow other than just for looks.  And there is a mod that gives you a LOT of vehicles to choose from if you really want more.
• Add water-based vehicles (kayak, boat) They might add a raft, but unlikely anything else.
• Add bleeding animation both for zombies and the character They have done some work with how damage to zombies looks and will likely do more.  There was talk of blood splatter at one point, for example.
• Dead "Spider Zombie" which has a blown head, shouldn't scream at the same pitch or be able to scream at all I haven't noticed this but if it still makes noise after being killed, it may be related to delay where the sound is set to play before the zombie is killed and then plays right after rather than being stopped.
• Faster map editor (to auto-generate map); 10 minutes is honestly too long to peek a look at a new map This is already done and is supposed to be around 4x faster if I remember what they said in the dev stream.  Of course, there are those of us who use Teragon to make some great maps and that takes longer depending on the map size and settings, so I wouldn't complain too much about 10 minutes.
• Add a stocking area for wood next to firecamp If they did this, they would also make the campfire take up more space and players are already complaining about the forge taking more space, so I doubt this would be something players would be happy with.  Also, you don't always keep firewood next to a campfire.  You usually end up placing it a ways away to avoid any risk of the firewood catching fire.
• Add tornados that can wipe 3D objects There is talk of weather changes but I doubt tornados would be a thing in this game.  Also, I for one would not want to see buildings getting destroyed.  Add in that weather doesn't affect unloaded chunks and it would be greatly limited in what could happen.  Besides, tornados aren't really that common in that they don't generally appear multiple times in the same area in the course of say 100 days.
• Add thunderstrike leading to burning forest (thus more dense forest^^) which also lead to blueberries groing in the new biome A burning forest would likely be way too much a fps impact to ever be considered.  They removed the burnt forest (or combined it with the wasteland).  You can still have a burnt forest if you edit the biomes.png file.  But I'm not really a fan of weather-related damage to the world as mentioned above.
• Add ability to create rising-bridge (like a castle gate above a river) We already have a drawbridge.
• Shooting while in a street should awaken all zombies in nearby houses This sounds good but it's a problem.  If you can make a bunch of noise and draw all zombies out of a building and lead them away and then lose the zombies and return to loot the building without worrying about zombies, that would not be good.
• Add more mushroom types More isn't always better.  Unless there is some reason why this would be worth adding, I don't think it is a good option.
• Allow users to create dam to produce hydroelectricity Remember that this is post-apocalyptic.  A few people, or even a group of 50, would not likely be able to create such a dam unless they were all highly skilled in such work.  We really don't need more power options.  If they wanted to add one more option, it should be a windmill.
• Add a food harvest tool I don't think we need any more tools.  We already have a bunch.  The axe and knife are good enough.
• Animals and zombies should pop at different locations in the same POI This is all based on how someone designs the POI.  Each POI is designed in a specific way and that may vary from one to another.  You can make your own POI and have them set up however you want.  Note that animals that are POI spawns don't include wild animals (non-zombie animals) AFAIK.
• Add snowstorms that can also leaves snow traces on the ground and with snow that can be harvested Weather is being worked on but I don't think they will do anything that will mix biomes like having snow - even a dusting - in the forest for example.
• Add gravity to water (to prevent having holes in lakes or river) Holes are already fixed for A21.
• Add scarier animations for awakening zombies As before, more animations are good.
• Add the option to block ressources gathering from certain blocks or objects (such as door) You can adjust this in the XML.  Seems fine as-is to me.
• Add metro under cities A POI designer can add a subway/metro if they wanted to, but there are challenges due to how city tiles and randomization work.
• Add an infection rate/probability (%) when harvesting infected animals or handling uncooked food Not there for harvesting/handling stuff but try eating it and you have a chance for dysentery.  Handling uncooked food isn't likely to give you any infection IRL, so certainly shouldn't in the game either.  And adding it for the zombie flesh just means people will probably just stop using it altogether and it's already not used for much.
• Allow ability to port characters (with their stats) to new maps I would be fine with this as an option though I'm not one who would want to start a new game at a high level because the reason I stop a game is that I don't really have anything left to do.  Going to another game with a high level and all stats and such leaves me in the same situation as why I stopped the previous game, so I don't see any value in that.
• The game really needs its own soundtrack. The current music is great 9/10, but... it's pretty much based on the same musical scale as Oblivion and the same soundtrack style as Hearthstone's tavern. Creating a soundtrack which is close to Diablo 1 Tristram theme (more like a creepy style) would be awesome I know a lot of people would like this.  I don't listen to game soundtracks outside of the game itself, so it really doesn't matter to me.
• Player shouldn't be able to drop off a bike going at full speed; there is cinetic energy involved in that process I don't really see a problem with this.  The game isn't a simulation.  For gameplay reasons, I'm perfectly fine dismissing certain physics like that.
• It should be easier to identify a real dead corpse from a sleeping zombie  Unnecessary.  It is already pretty easy as they almost always start getting back up within about a second.  It is rare that I think I killed something and it isn't really dead.  And on the rare occasion that does happen, well... that's my own fault for not being certain I killed it.  The game doesn't need to hold a player's hand.
• Add animations for broken body parts on zombies, not just removing body parts They have done some work on this and will likely continue to do work on it.
• Its not only the noises that a player makes that should awaken zombies, but zombies creating sounds should also awaken their relatives It would be fine but I don't really think it's an issue.
• Add beach and swamp biomes How would beach differ from desert?  There has to be something to differentiate them to make it a completely unique biome.  Swamp is one that could be viable.  But adding more biomes means trying to balance the game stage with biome adjustments and they aren't likely to add more biomes without a pretty good reason.
• Arrows shouldn't depop within minute (or at all) They have to limit what stays on the map because if you just continually let things stay on the map without despawning, it creates problems.  All games I know of despawn arrows either immediately after fired or within a relatively short amount of time.

 

Again, awesome game!!!

Cheers!

 

B

Overall, good ideas.  But remember that this game is in the final stages of development and they aren't likely to make too many changes that have not already been mentioned.

[Old Crow]

9 hours ago, Riamus said:

Although Crypted gave good responses to these, here are my own as well...

Overall, good ideas.  But remember that this game is in the final stages of development and they aren't likely to make too many changes that have not already been mentioned.

 

Yeah.. they won't even add a third tier of batons.